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E.A. Markham
| birth_place = Harris, Montserrat | death_date = March | death_place = Paris | resting_place = | occupation = Poet, Playwright, Novelist | language = | nationality = Monserratian | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = Lambchops (1985), Human Rites (1984), Looking Out, Looking In (2008) | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | portaldisp = }} Edward Archibald "Archie" Markham FRSL (1 October 1939 - 23 March 2008) was a Montserrat-born English poet, playwright, novelist, and academic. He was known for writing subtle, witty and intelligent poetry, which refused to conform to the conventions, and stereotypes, of British and Caribbean poetry alike. Life E.A. Markham was born into a large, middle-class family in Harris, Montserrat, in 1939. He attended the only grammar school on the island, before emigrating to the United Kingdom in 1956 at the age of seventeen. He remained in the U.K. for most of his life, writing as well as teaching at various academic institutions. In the U.K,, Markham read English and Philosophy at the University of Wales, Lampeter from 1962 to 1965. He subsequently went on to research seventeenth-century comedy at the University of East Anglia, before taking up his his first academic position as a lecturer at Kilburn Polytechnic (now the College of North West London). On leaving Kilburn Polytechnic, Markham founded the Caribbean Theatre Workshop, which aimed to explore "non-naturalistic ways of writing and playing", and which he led on a successful tour of Montserrat, Saint Vincent and other parts of the Eastern Caribbean in 1970-1971. Shortly after his return from the tour, Markham left for France, where he worked, building houses with a French co-operative movement (the Cooperative Ouvrière du Batiment) in the Alpes Maritimes, from 1972 to 1974. On returning to the UK, he joined a touring group called the Bluefoot Travellers, and was awarded a series of writing fellowships at Hull College (1978-9), in Brent, London (on a C. Day-Lewis Fellowship from 1979–80), Ipswich (1986), and at the University of Ulster (1988–91). He also worked as an active member of numerous literary groups and committees, including the Poetry Book Society, the Poetry Society (General Council, 1976–77) and the Minority Arts Advisory Service (MAAS), whose magazine, Artrage, he edited from 1985 to 1987. In a long itinerant period he took a Voluntary Service Overseas position for two years (1983-5) in Papua New Guinea, working as media co-ordinator for the provincial authorities in Enga province. He would later recall this experience in his memoir, A Papua New Guinea Soujourn (1993). In 1997 he took up the position of Professor or Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, where he co-founded the M.A. progra, in creative writing and directed the biennial Hallam Literature Festival. In 2005, Markham moved to Paris, France. He died there, of a heart attack on Easter day, 23 March 2008, at the age of 69. Writing Although Markham is mainly known for his poetry, he worked in many artistic genres across the years, producing plays, short stories, a novel and an autobiography as well as multiple collections of poetry. He found his first "artistic outlet" in drama, writing and producing a play called The Masterpiece while still at university in the early 1960s. A defining characteristic of Markham's work is his tireless exploration of multiple voices and perspectives. In a short introduction to his work entitled "Many Voices, Many Lives" (1989), Markham wrote: "The dramatic revelation that poets ... in the Caribbean had two voices - nation language and Standard English - released many energies; but we had to be sure that this wasn't to be interpreted that we had only two voices, only two modes of expression ... I was interested in testing the whole range of voices ... that were possibly real for me" As part of his exploration of multiple personae, Markham often published his works under pseudonyms. In the 1970s, Markham wrote a series of poems (including Lambchops, Lampchops in Disguise and Philpot in the City) in the fictional personae of Paul St. Vincent - a young, black man from Antigua, living in South London - and these poems were published in St. Vincent's name. Unlike much of Markham's poetry, the Paul St. Vincent poems are mainly written in nation language. Later, in the 1980s, Markham wrote through the fictional persona of Sally Goodman: a white, Welsh feminist. Some of the "Sally Goodman" poems were later anthologized in Markham's poetry collection Living in Disguise. Markham argued that in inventing these multiple personae, "the test was to force their creater to accommodate types of consciousness which, at the very least, served to enlarge one area of Westindianness". Markham's writing in genres other than poetry - the short story, the novel, autobiography and travel-writing - was well received by critics. In addition to his creative writing, Markham also edited two important anthologies of Caribbean writing: Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain (1979) and The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories (1996). Recognition On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Sheffield Hallam University published A Festschrift for E.A. Markham (1999), and in 2005, when Markham retired, the university made him an Emeritus professor. He was awarded the Certificate of Honour by the government of Montserrat in 1997, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2003. Publications Poetry *''Cross-fire''. Walton-on-Thames, UK: Outposts, 1972. *''Mad, and other poems''. Solihull, Skye, UK: Aquila / Phaethon, 1973. *''Love Poems, and Maze''. Cambridge, UK: Lobby Press, 1978. *''Master Class''. Harrowgate, Yorkshire, UK: Curlew Press, 1977. *''The Lamp''. Knotting, UK: Sceptre Press, 1978. *''Games and Penalties: A collection of poems''. Hatch End, UK: Poet & Printer, 1980. *''Love, Politics and Food''. Cambridge, MA: Von Hallet, 1982. *''Family Matters''. Stafford, UK: Sow's Ear, 1984. *''Human Rites: Selected poems, 1970-1982''. London: Anvil, 1984. *''Lambchops in Papua New Guinea''. Stafford, UK: Sow's Ear, 1986. *''Living In Disguise''. London & Dover, NH: Anvil, 1986. *''Towards the End of a Century''. London: Anvil, 1989. *''Maurice V.'s Dido''. London: Hearing Eye, 1991. *''Letter from Ulster & the Hugo Poems''. Todmorden, UK: Littlewood Arc, 1993. *''Misapprehensions''. London: Anvil, 1995. *''Fragments of Memory''. 2000.E.A. Markham, The Modern Novel, October 2, 2011. Web, Feb. 9, 2014. *''A Rough Climate''. London: Anvil, 2002. *''Looking Out, Looking In: New and selected poems''. London: Anvil, 2009. As "Paul St. Vincent" *''Lambchops''. Leicester, UK: Omens, 1976.Search results = au:Paul St. Vincent, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 9, 2014. *''Lambchops In Disguise''. London: Share Publications, 1976. *''Philpot in the City''. Kettlesing, Harrowgate, UK: Curlew Press, 1976. *''Lambchops with Sally Goodman: The selected poems of Paul St. Vincent and Sally Goodman''. Cambridge, UK: Sale, 2004. Plays *''John Lewis & Co.: A little play with interludes''. London: Anvil, 2003. Novels *''Pierrot''. Northants, UK: Greylag Press, 1979. *''Something Unusual''. London: Ambit Books, 1986. *''Marking Time''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 1999. *''Taking the Drawing Room Through Customs: Selected Stories 1970-2000''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 2002. *''Meet Me in Mozambique''. Birmingham, UK: Tindal Street, 2006. *''At Home with Miss Vanessa''. Birmingham, UK: Tindal Street, 2006. *''The Three Suitors of Fred Bellair''. Birmingham, UK: Tindal Street, 2009. Short fiction *''Ten Stories''. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Hallam University, 1994. *''Taking the Drawing Room Through Customs: Selected stories, 1972-2002''. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 2002. *''The Stories of E.A. Markham''. Birmingham: Tindal Street, 2009. Non-fiction *''A Papua New Guinea Sojourn: More pleasures of exile''. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1998. *''Between Coleride and Tommy Steele''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 2007. *''Against the Grain: A 1950's memoir''. Leeds, UK: Peepal Tree, 2008. Edited *''Merely a Matter of Colour: The Ugandan Asian anthology'' (edited with Arnold Kingston). Edgeware, UK: Q Books, 1973. *''Hinterland: Caribbean poetry from the West Indies and Britain''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1989. *''Hugo versus Montserrat'' (1989), for hurricane relief, edited with Howard Fergus *''The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories''. London 7 New York: Penguin, 1996. *''Plant Care: A festschrift for Mimi Khalvati. Sheffield, UK: Linda Lee Books, 2004. ''Except where noted bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:E.A. Markham, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 9, 2014. See also * List of British poets References *''A Festschrift for E. A. Markham'' (edited by Freda Volans and Tracey O'Rourke). 1999. Notes External links ;Poems *"The Long Road to Barnes & Noble, Booksellers" (.PDF) *E.A Markham 1939-2008 at the Poetry Foundation ;Audio / video *E. A. Markham (1939-2008) at The Poetry Archive ;About *E.A. Markham at The Modern Novel *The Passing of a Caribbean Literary Giant: E.A. Markham, Geoffrey Philp weblog. *E.A. Markham obituary at The Guardian *E.A. Markham at Peepal Tree Press *E.A. Markham in Gale Contemporary Black Biography Category:1939 births Category:2008 deaths Category:British poets Category:Black British writers Category:Alumni of the University of Wales, Lampeter Category:Academics of the University of Ulster Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Academics of Sheffield Hallam University Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia Category:British people of Montserratian descent Category:Montserratian emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:20th-century poets Category:English poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets